Green Bay — The Green Bay Packers develop more than football players. They develop scouts, too.

Initiated in the mid-1990s by general manager Ron Wolf, the team's scouting internship program during training camp has helped the organization fill openings in its personnel department with proven replacements.

"It was more like a protection type thing," Wolf said Monday. "If somebody comes in and takes a guy from you, now it's like having a taxi squad. Now you have a guy to go to you're very comfortable with."

At least six members of the Packers' current staff cut their evaluation teeth as training-camp interns.

■ Jason Lamb, a defensive end at Baylor who went to camp with the New York Jets in 2010. A four-time Academic All-Big 12 Conference choice, he is scheduled to receive a law degree from the University of Houston in '14.

■ Charles Walls, an offensive lineman whose career at Old Dominion was cut short by injury. He majored in business administration, served as a graduate assistant for his alma mater last year and also has plans to attend law school.

"We did it even in Seattle when I was there," GM Ted Thompson said. "We're all prisoners of our background, I think. Ron did it so we did it, and now we still do it."

The Packers, according to Thompson, interview 10 to 15 candidates before selecting two for camp.

"You're always kind of looking," said Thompson. "There are a lot of people out there that want to be a scout. This way you get them and put your hands on them for three or four weeks, and they're treated just like everybody else. They seem to enjoy it."

Ask Brian Brunner, the former all-state quarterback at Hartford who was one of the two scouting interns in 2009 after a four-year career at Central Michigan.

"It's my first or second day on the job and here comes Ted Thompson knocking on my door," Brunner recalled Monday from Mount Pleasant, Mich., where he serves as director of his alma mater's Chippewa Athletic Fund.

"He just pops his head in. 'Hey, Brian, I just want to introduce myself. I'm Ted Thompson. I'm our general manager.'

"It meant a lot. Ted's personality isn't the most over-the-top gregarious, but he is warm enough to let you know he cares."

Shortly upon arrival, Brunner was handed a list of 50 prospects for the next draft as well as 50 players already in the NFL. During the monthlong stay, Brunner wrote reports on those 100 players as well as evaluations of some Packers players.

"I was treated as part of the family, as part of the team," said Brunner. "I don't think you necessarily see that in a lot of internship programs. A lot of times you're just a go-fer, or you're getting coffee.

"In Green Bay, they very much want to treat it as a farm system. They want to hire their own. They want to groom people in the Packer way so that eventually they get people they can hire."

"It's Ron Wolf's way," said Alonzo Highsmith, the Packers senior personnel executive. "Watch tape, tape and more tape. Then if you need somebody, you know about a guy."

Eliot Wolf, the team's director of pro personnel, spent almost 10 summers interning in personnel with the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks.

Two former players in Green Bay, running back Dorsey Levens and safety Scott McGarrahan, showed promise as training-camp scouts following their playing careers but elected not to make it their life's work.

"With a lot of the summer guys, my thought was to see if they had the discipline to stay at it," Ron Wolf said. "You darn near know right away whether they can or can't evaluate. It's how they discipline themselves personally."

Early in his 10-year tenure in Green Bay, Wolf found himself receiving letters at least once a week from people, often former players and coaches, wanting to be a scout.

At the time, Wolf would bring a person to Green Bay, give him tapes and a tape machine, and allow the candidate 24 to 48 hours to produce.

Many failed.

Among those who survived these pressurized auditions and subsequently were hired by the Packers, said Wolf, were John Schneider, Reggie McKenzie, Will Lewis, Sam Seale, Thompson and Highsmith.

Schneider is GM in Seattle, McKenzie is GM in Oakland. Lewis is director of pro personnel in Kansas City. Seale has scouted the West Coast for the Packers since 1995.

"By trial and error we got it worked out pretty well where we knew almost instantly whether a guy could do it or not," Wolf said. "I was always looking for young guys. That was important."

About Bob McGinn

Bob McGinn is a beat writer and columnist covering the Green Bay Packers. A six-time Wisconsin state sportswriter of the year, he won the Dick McCann Memorial Award in 2011 for long and distinguished reporting on pro football.